Great leader, capable administrator, and powerful patron, Julius Caesar dominated the splendid period of the Camerte renaissance. Having escaped the massacre of his family in 1434, he returned to Camerino in 1443 and ruled first together with his cousin Rudolph IV, then as the only lord. In 1451 he married Giovanna Malatesta, daughter of the great Sigismondo Pandolfo Di Rimini. He was in the service of the popes, from whom he obtained permission to transmit dominion to his heirs and established diplomatic relations with all the powerful of the time. He created around him a rich court frequented by humanists, promoted the arts, built the magnificent courtyard of his palace, the churches of Santa Chiara and the Annunziata and the hospital of Santa Maria della Pietà. Once the state was occupied by Cesare Borgia, son of Alexander VI, once again the Da Varano family was decimated: Julius Caesar and his sons were captured and killed. The old gentleman was strangled in 1502 in Pergola by the hand of Micheletto da Valenza.

The character is identifiable by the writing IULIUS Cesar engraved along the collar of the cuirass.

Originally the bust surmounted the main entrance of the ducal palace of Camerino, perhaps recessed in a niche as suggested by the rough workmanship of the nape. The lord of Camerino is represented truthfully in his features as an already elderly man, even if the image was perhaps sculpted after 1502, the year of his violent death, on the decision of his son Giovanni Maria da Varano, who in 1503 reconquered the state and from 1515 he became duke.